Greater New Orleans

NOPD Officer Jamal Kendrick, left, and NOPD Lt. Michael Field were both charged Tuesday in separate incidents of alleged beatings of handcuffed citizens. The Orleans Parish district attorney's office charged both with malfeasance in office and simple battery.
(Photo by John McCusker, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune (left)/ NOPD yearbook (right))

The Orleans Parish district attorney's office charged two NOPD officers on Tuesday in separate incidents of alleged beatings of handcuffed citizens. Both were charged with malfeasance in office and simple battery, said Christopher Bowman, assistant district attorney and spokesman for the district attorney's office.

Both Lt. Michael Field, a 28-year veteran, and officer Jamal Kendrick, who joined the force in 2010, will be placed on emergency suspension without pay starting Wednesday, NOPD spokeswoman Remi Braden said.

Dylan Driggers was arrested on Bourbon Street and detained on
a charge of public intoxication. Driggers filed a federal civil rights
lawsuit on Feb. 19, alleging that Field and other officers beat him
unconscious while he was handcuffed to a bench at the 8th District station in the French Quarter. Driggers was later diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome, requiring medical treatment, according to the lawsuit.

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Naomi Martin and Ramon Antonio Vargas

NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

Other NOPD officers witnessed the attack and did not intervene, the suit alleges. Showing off his knuckles, Field later bragged about having beaten Driggers, the lawsuit says. Driggers' suit further alleges that police -- including 8th District Commander Jeff Walls -- orchestrated a subsequent cover-up by possibly destroying surveillance video.

Kendrick, who joined the NOPD in September 2009, was charged in an Oct. 13, 2012, incident in which he was led on a chase by a driver who refused to pull over. When the driver finally stopped, Kendrick handcuffed the driver and was shown on his car's video recorder striking the driver, Braden said. The Public Integrity Bureau investigated that case as well, before handing it over to the district attorney's office.

Lawyers for both police officers defended their clients. "We're disappointed by the news," said Field's attorney Bruce Whittaker. "We are commencing our investigation, and we will defend it aggressively."

"These are mere allegations by the district attorney's office," said attorney Ray Burkart III on behalf of Kendrick. "Officer Kendrick is presumed innocent until proven guilty. We ask that he is given that same right that every other citizen is given."

Newspaper archives show Kendrick was among six officers who were at the fatal shooting of a murder suspect in eastern New Orleans in January 2012. In that incident, the police chased a car containing three suspects in a triple murder at a nearby home.

When the car eventually crashed into a pole, 21-year-old Donald Johnson began firing at officers with a handgun, police said. Officers returned fire and killed Johnson. Two other people in the car were arrested and booked with murder.

An investigation found that Kendrick and his colleagues acted appropriately, Burkart said.